Intermittent Connection

Hi

I have the following setup:

D-LINK wireless router transmitting an SSID with DHCP enabled. It is
protected by WPA AES-PSK.

There are two machines connecting to it, a laptop and a desktop. Also,
I regularly use ipod touch to check my emails and youtube etc.

The intermittent connection problem only exists with the laptop. The
desktop and ipod are fine. Whenever I boot my laptop, it takes ages to
connect to the wireless network. Sometimes, it connects and remains
connected to it for the whole session. And sometimes, it connects and
disconnects after ten or twenty minutes of usage.

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1501 and has vista home premium on it.

Due to the fact that it is only the laptop and not the other machines,
I am not sure where the problem lies. Both desktop and laptop are
setup in an identical way.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:11:23 -0700 (PDT), Yousaf
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>D-LINK wireless router transmitting an SSID with DHCP enabled. It is
>protected by WPA AES-PSK.

Does this DLink wireless router have a model number? Extra credit for
disclosing the hardware revision and firmware version. If the
firmware version is out of date, it might be useful to update it.

>There are two machines connecting to it, a laptop and a desktop. Also,
>I regularly use ipod touch to check my emails and youtube etc.
>
>The intermittent connection problem only exists with the laptop. The
>desktop and ipod are fine. Whenever I boot my laptop, it takes ages to
>connect to the wireless network. Sometimes, it connects and remains
>connected to it for the whole session. And sometimes, it connects and
>disconnects after ten or twenty minutes of usage.

That's not normal operation. It's a fair guess that the problem is in
the laptop, but I intuition seems to point to the Dlink router. Check
the firmware version.

>The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1501 and has vista home premium on it.
>Due to the fact that it is only the laptop and not the other machines,
>I am not sure where the problem lies. Both desktop and laptop are
>setup in an identical way.

I've looked all over the web and can't seem to find the exact maker
and model number of the wireless card in the Inspiron 1501. All I
know is that it's a Mini PCI-E card and that it might be a 1390, 1490,
1505, or 1395 wireless card. Identify the model, go unto the Dell
support web pile, find your laptop by the service code number, and
download the latest driver. While you're at it, you might also update
the BIOS as this sometimes has an effect.

Also, check if your laptop is "busy" doing something while it's trying
to connect. Look for constantly flashing hard disk, or watch the
"task manager" CPU usage. I had one customer with a similar problem
that turned out to be a virus scanner that was set to run almost
continuously.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

> Does this DLink wireless router have a model number? *Extra credit for
> disclosing the hardware revision and firmware version. *If the
> firmware version is out of date, it might be useful to update it.

Model number: DIR-615
H/W ver: D2
F/W ver: 1.00VG


> I've looked all over the web and can't seem to find the exact maker
> and model number of the wireless card in the Inspiron 1501. *All I
> know is that it's a Mini PCI-E card and that it might be a 1390, 1490,
> 1505, or 1395 wireless card. *Identify the model, go unto the Dell
> support web pile, find your laptop by the service code number, and
> download the latest driver. *While you're at it, you might also update
> the BIOS as this sometimes has an effect.

The wireless card is:

Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card

I'll update the driver and the BIOS and see if that helps.

> Also, check if your laptop is "busy" doing something while it's trying
> to connect. *Look for constantly flashing hard disk, or watch the
> "task manager" CPU usage. *I had one customer with a similar problem
> that turned out to be a virus scanner that was set to run almost
> continuously.

I'll keep an eye on the task manager and the hard disk light.

Thanks.

I have just updated the WLAN card driver and after the reboot got
connected to the network instantly. Will keep monitoring and post an
update on this thread. Thanks so much for your help.

Just an update for the benefit of anyone affected by the same issue:

I updated my wireless network card driver from Dell support site and
it is working perfectly now.

Thanks to Jeff for his valuable advice.